The Grammatical Influence of English on Arabic in the Passive Voice in Translation

Basem I. M. Al-Raba’a

Abstract

This short paper addresses the idea that translation as a case of language contact can prompt convergence between Arabic and English. I hypothesize that using the by-phrase along with the agent in the Arabic passive structure has been modeled, via a grammaticalization process, on its English counterpart in translation. This process has led to pattern replication, i.e. borrowing the abstract features of the source language (English). The findings reveal that not only foreign language learners initiate a language change alongside bilinguals, but also that the former are much more involved in this process than the latter.

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